...“It seems quite (click title to entry - thank you) extraordinary that we’d just nail these posts the way they say we did,” said one senior American official who was in close touch with American and NATO officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan early Saturday. “Whether they were going after people or whether there was some firing from the Afghan side of the border, then the Pakistan side, we just don’t know. It’s real murky right now. Clearly, something went very wrong.”
The American ambassador in Islamabad, Cameron Munter, called an emergency meeting and expressed regret over the Pakistani casualties. And Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, offered condolences to families of the dead and promised an investigation. “This incident has my highest personal attention and my commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts,” he said in a statement....
The USA cannot forget about the Mumbai attacks, the allegiance showed to China when Musharraf purchased weapons to gain more power over India with the payment by Rumsfeld for air space, the 'stab in the back' of allowing our downed helicopter to be inspected by the Chinese, the finding of extensive networks of al Qaeda after ten years of war in Afghanistan.
The global community cannot forget the work of Dr. Kahn and his empowerment of rouge states of nuclear capacity. If there is a shadow of a doubt about these attacks being conducted by the USA, there is more than enough reason to allow that doubt to exist. I believe the forces at work with Afghanistan and Pakistan with the success of the USA in the region are at work here, not the USA or its troops, but, the investigation will show what has occurred.
Pakistan can never seem to 'get over the hump' of its own problems simply because its problems serve a purpose to its power.
While the established government plays on the world stage, its people suffer under oppressive and anarchic power regimes. Those regimes struggle for power and provide a venue of excuses for the Pakistani government to justify its existence while allowing terrorist networks to thrive within its borders. The networks are a form of a 'security force' for Pakistan, no different than Al Capone had his day as well.
Currently, the people of Pakistan are experiencing profound problems of survival. The floods have devastated families, cast more and more into poverty and debt while oppressing them to local councils that have little use for the central government. Actually, the local tribal authorities find comfort in opposing the central government empowered by their own extremists will to fight the Holy War.
China is not a benign interest with Pakistan. China has a paranoia of The West fostered by the circumstances with Taiwan. It is not a strange paranoia, it is actually justified. China wants peace, but, it also is vigilant to those in its neighborhood that do not. Being a partner to Pakistan serves the national security interests of China in its concerns about The West. China could not care less if Europe is secure because it does not see it as an ally, so much as an opportunist to conventional war.
So to say there are tensions is an understatement, but, those tensions are allowed to exist for a variety of reasons.
It is the people of the nation that most concerned the former Prime Minister and Presidential Candidate Benazir Bhutto. It was the people of the tribal regions that she loved. Her Pakistan was not to be torn in its loyalties, so much as healed of the factions that comprise the instability that reaches all the way to the ISI. It is that focus the global community, including China, needs to focus upon. The people are a nation or at least they are suppose to be and the people of Pakistan have yet to be a priority. The priority of the central government of Pakistan has been power and NOT SERVICE. The focus of 'power' is somewhat enforced with its diplomacy and resourcing with China.
The power broker that Kahn was has caused great hardship to the people of the countries he tooled up, North Korea and Iran. The people within those countries are neglected by their governments, while they embrace power, the acquisition of it and strategies for its use all wrapped up in ideologies that do not value life.
I sincerely hope the investigation into this incident is telling of the powers within Pakistan the central government can't seem to contain, including those still existing that found the resolve to attack India. I fully anticipate the investigation to include any and all knowledge the ISI knew of such activity. I find this 'incident' oddly linked with demands for the USA to withdraw from the region with its drones after the Pakistani government now has spy drones of its own. The power structure within Pakistan continues to separate itself from any alliances with the USA, so much as seeking more weaponry and insidious forms of combat against India. Pakistan has to know there is an alliance with India the USA cannot forget and while Pakistan views the proximity of the USA as a problem, I am confident India does not while it does not have spy drones.
The people of this region suffer continued challenges to survive. The militarization only provides the impetus to the escalation of power by Pakistan. The demand for power is waved in the face of its President by the ISI and the continued indulgence of the Pakistani military for its need for overwhelming force in the region is engaged at every opportunity to insure the President is not assassinated when the military gifts stop.
The people of this region have to become an overwhelming focus on the global stage. I don't see why there is any military indulgence within this region by any country. But, it will continue and the powder keg will increase day after day while Pakistan and China continue to desire to fight The West while it attempts to dominate the region.
The power struggles are significant, but meaningless when the people have no hope and only serve as foot soldiers to extremists. The vision the leaders of the region have for their people are not accomplishing their goals. China has more of interest to end terrorist regimes and networks in the region as much, if not more than the USA does. Yet there is no active pursuit of peace by China with The West when it seeks to out wit them rather than resolving its own tensions.
The USA is not accomplishing anything, it is marking time. There are no improvements and the only focus that has been successful is ending the al Qaeda presence. The people continue to struggle, the children remain without a future, the same paradigm of debt slavery exists and women continue to be valued for less then they are capable of contributing to their country. Sooner or later, the USA has to leave the region as there can is no resolve by the governments to peace and co-existence. To that end the countries will be less one more scapegoat and we will have reclaimed our dignity and perspective. Perhaps when we finally don't carry the mantle of battle anymore, the USA will be valued by Pakistan in the light it should be.
